(See plan.)
Both commanders clung to the lead and pushed ahead as if racing
into the fray, thus effectually preventing deployment and leaving
trailers far behind. Nelson went so far as to try to jockey his
old friend out of first place by ordering the _Mars_ to pass him,
but Collingwood set his studding sails and kept his lead. Possibly
it was then he made the remark that he wished Nelson would make no
more signals, as they all knew what they had to do, rather than
after Nelson's famous final message: "England expects that every
man will do his duty."

Nelson, uncertain of Villeneuve's place in the line and anxious to
prevent escape northward, steered for a gap ahead of the _Santisima
Trinidad_, as if to threaten the van. But at 12:00 noon, as the
first shots were fired at the _Royal Sovereign_, flags were broken
from all ships, and Villeneuve's location revealed. Swinging to
southward under heavy fire, the _Victory_ passed under the stern
of the _Bucentaure_ and then crashed into the _Redoutable_, which
had pushed close up to the flagship. The relative effectiveness
of the gunnery in the two fleets is suggested by the fact that
the _Victory_ while coming in under the enemy's concentrated fire
had only 50 killed and wounded, whereas the raking broadside she
finally poured into the _Bucentaure's_ stern is said to have swept
down 400 men. Almost simultaneously with the leader, the _Temeraire_
and _Neptune_ plunged into the line, the former closing with the
_Bucentaure_ and the latter with the _Santisima Trinidad_ ahead.
Other ships soon thrust into the terrific artillery combat which
centered around the leaders in a confused mingling of friend and
foe.

At about 12:10, nearly half an hour before the _Victory_ penetrated
the Allied line, the _Royal Sovereign_ brought up on the leeward
side of the _Santa Ana_, flagship of the Spanish Admiral Alava,
after raking both her and the _Fougueux_ astern. The _Santa Ana_
was thirteenth in the actual line, but, as Collingwood knew, there
were 16, counting those to leeward, among the ships he had thus
cut off for his division to subdue. As a combined effect of the
light breeze and the manner of attack, it was an hour or more before
the action was made general by the advent of British ships in the
rear. All these suffered as they closed, but far less than those
near the head of the line. Of the total British casualties fully
a third fell upon the four leading ships--_Victory, Teme